Senior Correspondent for Fairfax Media

Puneet Puneet after being bailed from the Magistrates Court in 2008. Photo: Angela Wylie

Hit-run fugitive Puneet Puneet, captured in India last week after more than four years on the run, will not fight his extradition to Australia, his father says, but Naresh Rawel fears his "victim" son will not be safe in an Australian prison.

"We do not have the capacity and resources to fight his case either in India or in Australia. We are not challenging it [his extradition] now," Mr Rewal told Fairfax Media in his first interview from his home in Panchkula India.

"But there is different treatment for Indians in Australia. I do not think he will be safe there. He is not an accused, he is a victim."

Peter and Fran Hofstee, parents of Dean Hofstee. Photo: John Woudstra

Puneet, 24, is expected in court this week to begin his extradition hearing.

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In October 2008, Puneet, then 19, was driving at 150km/h with a blood alcohol reading of .165 when he lost control of his car and hit Gold Coast students Dean Hofstee and Clancy Coker on City Road in Southbank in Melbourne.

Mr Hofstee was killed and Mr Coker seriously injured.

Victim... Dean Hoftsee

Puneet initially said a cat had run on the road distracting him and that he had "sore eyes", but later pleaded guilty to culpable driving.

In 2009, he fled Australia on a friend's passport before he was sentenced, and eluded capture for four years despite police surveillance including phone taps of his family and friends, and a reward of $100,000 (more than five million Indian rupees).

On November 29, police, acting on a tip-off from a friend of Puneet, captured him at a hotel in the city of Panipat where he had travelled to meet the woman he intended to marry and her family, to plan their wedding.

Police say he was in the company of his father, a claim his father denies, saying he had not had any contact with his son since he returned to India.

Puneet's family live in an unremarkable house in Panchkula, a satellite city of Chandigarh, which is the capital of both Haryana and Punjab states.

The three-storey home, of the type given to government employees, is like every other on the middle-class boulevard, with a large iron gate and a car parked in the street outside.

His family have not spoken to any media since his arrest and his father was a reluctant interviewee. He would not come outside the house, and answered questions through a screen door. He turned the lights off inside his house, covering his face with a shawl, and would not be photographed.

Mr Rewal said the accident his son caused, and his subsequent years on the run, had shattered his family.

"It's a very tough time. His entire family is devastated. His mother is in a state of shock; she just wants her son back."

In patriarchal north India, Mr Rewal said his family's future depended on his son.

"He is my only son; we all depend on his fortune."

Mr Rewal described the crash, which happened at 1am after Puneet had been drinking whisky with workmates, as "an accident".

"Accidents take place. The accident in which he was involved was a mistake. But there are many Indians killed in Australia but nobody cares about them. The Indian government is doing nothing to rescue them."

About the time of Puneet's accident, there was a spate of racially motivated attacks on, and murders of, Indian students in Australia, particularly Melbourne. The incidents caused a diplomatic row between Australia and India.

Mr Rewal said his son was forced to skip justice in Australia.

"He fled because there was a danger to his life there. He was beaten and tortured. His laptop and other belongings were snatched. The situation forced him to flee as he didn't have any other options."

In contradiction to statements by police, Mr Rewal said he had not had contact with his fugitive son since he returned to India.

But it appears Puneet had begun to reconstruct a new life back in India. He was working, at one point in a call centre in Noida, near the Indian capital Delhi, and had become engaged.

Mr Rewal said he did not know of his son's plans to marry.

"We were not aware of his whereabouts in India. None of our family members were in touch with him and we had no idea about his wedding plans and his fiancee."

Puneet will most likely appear in an Indian court this week as extradition proceedings against him begin. Despite a new streamlined extradition treaty between Australia and India, this process is expected to take months to finalise. The maximum penalty for culpable driving causing death in Victoria is 20 years' imprisonment.

Fairfax understands that the informant who tipped off Indian police about Puneet's whereabouts intends to claim the $100,000 reward.

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